Research Management - Loan Calculator - Financial View

Conditional Formatting

• Overdue Payments: Cells where Payment Date < Today() AND Ending Balance > 0 are highlighted in red.
• Budget Exceedance: If total disbursed for a project exceeds its grant cap (tracked in Research Project Tracker), the cell turns orange.
• High-Interest Loans: Any loan with an interest rate > 5% is bolded in yellow to flag fiscal risk.
• Project Completion: Projects marked “Repaid” with no remaining balance appear in green text.

User Instructions

1. Begin by entering all loan disbursements on the Loan Disbursements sheet, ensuring Project ID matches entries in the Research Project Tracker.
2. The Repayment Schedule and Dashboards auto-update based on your inputs—no manual editing needed here.
3. Update the “Status” column only when a loan is fully repaid or deferred (use dropdown).
4. To add a new research project, enter details in the Research Project Tracker sheet, including grant amount, start/end dates, and funding source.
5. Use the Compliance & Reporting sheet to generate quarterly summaries for auditors or funding agencies. It auto-populates totals per agency and PI.
6. Never delete rows on automated sheets—use filters to hide completed loans instead.

Example Rows

Recommended Charts & Dashboards

The Dashboards sheet includes four interactive visualizations:

• Loan Disbursement Trend (Line Chart): Displays monthly disbursement volume over the last 36 months.
• Funding Agency Allocation (Pie Chart): Shows percentage of total funds distributed per agency—critical for grant compliance reporting.
• PI Loan Exposure (Bar Chart): Compares total loan amounts held by each principal investigator to identify financial concentration risks.
• Repayment Status Summary (Gauge Meter): Visualizes percentage of loans fully repaid vs. active or deferred.

This template transforms the mundane task of loan tracking into a strategic research finance tool. By embedding financial controls within a research management context, it ensures fiscal accountability without compromising scientific agility. The Financial View design—minimalist, color-coded, and audit-proof—makes it ideal for CFOs, grant officers, and principal investigators alike.